I voted for too noisy. The fan is really buzzy. The only time the fan turns off (for me anyway) is if I shut the mini down, which in turn makes the drive spin down. When I restart the mini, it's not long (15-20 minutes) before the fan in the stack spins up.

I gather that the fan is on b/c it's hot. However, the heat itself is not a problem for me per se. I have my mini and my stack actually on their sides, standing on end so to speak. Even when several inches apart the far on the stack stays on. Oddly I'm getting used to it but I'm considering returning it for a mini mate which I understand to be fanless.

I'm happy with it thus far. I don't believe that it is too hot or too noisy. The fan comes on at intervals but does not stay on all the time for me. I have found that a very good deal of heat was actually coming off the bottom of the Mini. I don't believe that it is healthy for either unit having them stacked directly on top of each other. I've seen mentioned elsewhere on this forum the addition of feet on the bottom of the Mini. This creates some needed airspace which I believe is a very good idea. I have some clear adhesive backed feet I picked up at Radio Shack for a couple $ and have added them both to the bottom of the Mini and the bottom of the miniStack. This creates airspace under each unit._________________2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB RAM
miniStack 500GB
Dell 1905FP
Logitech Wave Cordless Desktop

My Mini is on top of my MiniStack. My comptuer is in a very warm room. Yet I'm pleased to say the Stack's fan does not come on that often. It been working well for me so far._________________Sincerely,
XForce11

Hey,
Any of you guys who are *not* experiencing the continuous fan problem...are you using the ministack as a boot drive or just external storage?

TM

External Storage / iDVD scratch drive

I did boot off of it for a couple days when I first got it and noticed the fan coming on periodically but it did not run continuously. I don't think the fan really sounds that loud when it is running. I think you did the right thing by contacting OWC. Did they give you any feedback as to whether what you were experiencing was typical? Hopefully your results will be better with the replacement._________________2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB RAM
miniStack 500GB
Dell 1905FP
Logitech Wave Cordless Desktop